“From India, um, there’s a superstition that if you if you- if the base of your tongue is, like, dark it’s, like, kind of black, it’s called having a black tongue and it means that like when you say something it’s more likely to come true. So my mom has a black tongue, so people will, like, call, relatives will, like, call her and say, like, ‘Hey, like, could you, like, pray me for me or do this…’ or something because like it’s more likely to come true because she has a black tongue.

And then there’s the dreaming thing, which is that if you die in a dream it, uh- according to Indian superstition, if you die in a dream, then that’s good luck for the rest of your life. Which is in opposition to what a lot of the rest of the world believes happens if you die in a dream, um, yeah. That’s it.”

My informant learned of these superstitions from her family when she was growing up. She says they are common beliefs throughout India and was surprised when she first discovered they were not common in the United States. My informant was born in India, but raised in Japan, the USA, and India.

These beliefs are not of great personal importance to my informant, other than making her feel connected with her family in India. She does not believe they hold any significant truth.

What my informant was referring to was the popular Western idea that if one dies in a dream, one has died in reality.

Collected by Kate LavellePosted Tuesday, 14th of May 2013 at 10:44:57 PM